Really nice video of Seu Jorge and his new band playing Rock With You, and an amazing track that you can download for free, right here.
Seu Jorge & Almaz – Cirandar
Buy it when it drops (it’s already out in the USA you lucky, lucky people) from Now Again records.
Bit of a weird one, this. London’s British Film Institute has always, in my experience, been one of the most interesting and forward-looking arts venues – and not even just for film – in the city.
Huge disappointment, then, to see the line-up for the Latin American film season coming up in August; the imaginatively-titled South American Renaissance. It’s not that City of God, Lower City, Bus 174, or Central Station are bad films – far from it, in fact. And both the Argentinian ‘documentary’ The Blondes and Peruvian fable Madeinusa are intriguing films, if ultimately pretty frustrating.
But it all just seems a bit… pointless. Yes, there appeared to be a kind of ‘renaissance’ of sorts around the millennium, out of which came some incredible movies, but in its wake has come a quite staggering amount of quality cinema that’s a lot less readily available to the average British cinema-goer than The Motorcycle Diaries (10th, 14th and 31st of August, if you were wondering).
A couple of months back, the Barbican’s Cinema of Brazil season brought another interesting, varied programme that focused on music in film in interesting ways. The BFI, on the other hand, seem to have put this upcoming season together in a terrible rush, using a couple of DVDs they borrowed from some friend, who used to go to the movies quite a bit back in about 2003, but has now got a serious job and a family and Just Doesn’t Have The Time to keep up any more.
The point, I suppose, is that it’s fine (of course) to Just Not Have The Time to keep up with all the new and exciting films coming out of Latin America unless you’re a national, publicly-funded film institute that’s about to run a Latin American film season, in which case it sort of is your job.
Very cool time-lapse video around Berlin, from Brazilian photographer Luis Veiga. He’s also done a similar film using images shot in his native land, which you can watch right about here.
The soundtrack isn’t really my cup of the proverbial tea, to be honest, but if you’re interested, the music is by a band called Brave The Elements.
Bet you didn’t even know there was a Brazilian architecture scene in London and New York… Me neither.
Turns out we were both wrong, though. Which is why it was awfully kind of international design-porn magazine Wallpaper* to run this feature on the scenes in question.
Especially pleased to see this bit – the interview with freelance architect, photoshop gangster and all-round Good Egg, Thellius. Parabéns rapaz!
This is absolutely HUGE! Uber-eclectic UK producer and Mr. Bongo stalwart Greymatter has produced a stone-cold killer of a track with Funk Carioca queen Deize Tigrona. I can’t really wrap my head around what Eu Fumo even is, but there’s definitely elements of dubstep and kuduro beats in there, as well as that unmistakeable Baile Funk attitude in the vocals.
Whatever it is, it really works – as does the rest of his new album, Mind over Matter. It’s a bit of a grower, but well worth it; it seems like a pretty comprehensive snapshot of everything that’s right about British music right now.
You can download the whole album for free, via his Bandcamp page, but don’t sleep: it’s for a limited time only.
Greymatter feat. Deize Tigrona – Eu Fumo
Check Sam Collenette’s in interview with Greymatter for Knowledge Magazine here.
Nice post over on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood website about one of my favourite Brazilian LPs of the last few years, Ed Motta’s Dwitza. It’s a mostly instrumental album and very raw sounding, recording-wise. Plus it was recently re-released by whatmusic.com, so it’s not too hard to come by a copy.
Here’s a little taster, a track whose name translates as something like “Complete Beerage”
Ed Motta – Cervejamento Total
Very, very excited about this. Everybody Loves The Sunsine is the first single from Seu Jorge’s brand new project with his brand new band, Almaz. Working with two members of the legendary Nação Zumbi and the bassist Antonio Pinto – who cinephiles might know from his sterling work on the City of God soundtrack – the Seu Jorge & Almaz album will be released late-July on the frankly flawless Now Again records. In the meantime, wrap your ears around their lovely, laid-back take on Roy Ayers’ summertime classic. You can buy the single here.
Seu Jorge & Almaz – Everybody Loves The Sunshine (right click to download)
